A Note About "Low Carb" Bars, Glycerol & the FDA by Bryan Haycock

A Note About "Low Carb" Bars, Glycerol & the FDA

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Anyone familiar with the latest crop of low carb bars is familiar with that "bite" you get in the back of your throat as you eat it. This is caused by the glycerol they use to sweeten them with. I have no problem with this. However, did you notice how they do not include glycerol on the label? Did you know that by law they should?

Glycerol is a colorless, odorless, sweet-tasting, syrupy liquid. It is technically an alcohol. One unique property of glycerol is that it is hygroscopic, or in other words, it absorbs water from the air. Glycerol is about 60% as sweet as sucrose and is used in the food industry to sweeten as well as to add a chewy texture or "mouth feel". I don’t usually do this, or at least I try not to anyway, but here is an excerpt from the IFT newsletter from their Food Laws and Regulations Division (Newsletter - Vol. 9, No. 1 - Winter/Spring 1999). You can visit their site at http://www.ift.org. You can also stop by the FDA’s web site at www.fda.gov. Anyway, here is the second hand scoop on how the FDA feels about glycerol, carbohydrates and food labeling.

"According to James E. Hoadley, Ph.D. of FDA's Office of Food Labeling, glycerin is labeled as carbohydrate and, if any claim is made regarding sugar content, also as a sugar alcohol. The following is an abstract of a letter signed by Hoadley and provided by Mitzi Elkes of JEMS International, Inc.:"

"When part of the fat molecule as the glycerin components of the fatty acid-glycerol esters, glycerin is included in the weight of total fat in nutrition labeling. However, when added to a food as a separate ingredient, glycerin is labeled as part of total carbohydrate. "Carbohydrates are polyhydroxy aldehydes or ketones conforming to the general formula (CH20)n and their derivatives... ...three carbon sugars include glyceraldehyde (an aldehyde) and dihydroxyacetone (a ketone). The hydrogenated derivative of both these is glycerin [CH20)3H]. The chemical definition of carbohydrate is clearly inclusive of all three compounds...There is no rational basis to consider glycerin as anything but a carbohydrate."

"...total carbohydrate content of a food...shall be calculated by subtraction of the sum of the crude protein, total fat, moisture, and ash from the total weight of the food..."

"Glycerin is clearly included with this "Carbohydrate by Difference" definition which is used to calculate carbohydrate content..."

"A sugar alcohol (or polyol) is the hydrogenated derivative of a sugar. As noted above, glycerin is the hydrogenated derivative of glyceraldehyde and dihydroxyacetone, and thus is a sugar alcohol. Nutrition labeling regulations provide for a voluntary statement in the nutrition label of the number of grams of sugar alcohols per serving. Declaration of the sugar alcohol content becomes mandatory when a claim is made about sugars...and sugar alcohols are present in the food. As such, when glycerin is an ingredient of a food and the food label bears a claim about sugar content, the amount of glycerin per serving must be declared both as part of the weight of total carbohydrate and as a sugar alcohol."

"In summary, the terms glycerol and glycerin refer to the same substance. FDA nutrition labeling regulations require that when glycerin is used as a food ingredient, it must be included in the grams of total carbohydrate per serving declaration. Also, when the label of a food containing glycerin has a statement regarding sugars, the glycerin content per serving must also be declared as sugar alcohol."

Can it be any clearer than to have the FDA’s office of food labeling state, "FDA nutrition labeling regulations require that when glycerin is used as a food ingredient, it must be included in the grams of total carbohydrate per serving declaration. Also, when the label of a food containing glycerin has a statement regarding sugars, the glycerin content per serving must also be declared as sugar alcohol"? I have no problem with using glycerol as a sweetener, but I do have a problem with having to explain to my clients and readers that the bars they are eating are mislabeled…intentionally to get you to think there are fewer carbs in it than there really is. It is deceptive and dishonest and it gives the food/supplement industry a bad name.